Stop Dressing Like a Terrorist! (I mean you, JBiebs)

The most famous of all terrorist fashion statements, at least in the US, is the hoodie, as made famous by Ted Kaczynski, who was also attempting to popularize unkempt hair and beards, apparently. Unless you want people to think you are a terrorist, you should probably get rid of that hoodie and cut that hair.

Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist, preferred a more groomed look, and white T-shirts. If you don't want people to think you are a terrorist, grow a beard and don't wear white T-shirts. Maybe you shouldn't be a man anymore, as well. Just to be sure.

Andrew Joseph Stack III, frequently referred to as a "tax protestor", flew a plane into a government building. Clearly terrorism. He favored plaid button downs. Remove any plaid button downs from your wardrobe immediately if you don't want to freak people out on planes.

Hutaree, famous for a multipart plot to kill police officers by the dozens, made it just threatening to be a woman as a man, by including a woman in their group. They preferred to wear colored T-shirts and camouflage.

So, just to review, if you don't want people to mistake you for a terrorist, shave your beard and cut your hair, don't be clean shaven, don't be a man, don't be a woman, don't wear hoodies, don't wear plaid button downs, don't wear white or colored T-shirts and don't wear camouflage.

Oh, wait, silly me. All you have to do is not be brown in America. American nonMuslim terrorists don't exist, you see.

But You Already Knew That, I'm Sure

Attorneys for nearly 150 people who claim sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests made nearly 10,000 pages of previously sealed internal church documents public Sunday . . .

I can't say these documents reveal facts that I find surprising, but the tone of some of the letters is disturbing to say the least.

"In early August 1963, Father was placed under arrest by the civil police of the City of San Diego for violation of the State Penal Code," then-Bishop Charles F. Buddy wrote the Colombian bishop in the Diocese of Cali. "At that time, arrangements were made between this Chancery and the civil authorities of San Diego in which, if Father left the United States with the promise never to return, the charges against Father would be set aside by Civil Law."

How would solve anything? They simply moved him to a different parish, a parish that presumably also had children in it, unless Columbia was devoid of children in the mid 60s. Oh, wait, the aim of the Church wasn't to protect children, it was to protect itself.

Church files indicate he also served in Florida and Texas before arriving in the San Diego diocese, where he worked with migrant workers in the Coachella Valley about 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

"You have won a reputation as a zealous worker and devoted to the poor," Bishop Buddy wrote the priest in a December 1962 letter.

"On the other hand, the 'incidents' at Indio were more serious than first presented to me, especially inasmuch as the police have made a record of them. You know how word gets around, so that you be certain that the police here will be on your trail. ... It will be more prudent and more secure for you to return to your own diocese."

You know how word gets around?! That's the issue? Not that children were molested, their entire lives scarred by the actions of a monster, but word, it'll get around. And that's what's important here. Children? Unless they're in the womb, fuck 'em. Literally. Feel free. The Church will hide you. So as not to make a fuss.

Another case outlined in the files involves the Rev. Robert Nikliborc, who was sent to a psychiatric treatment facility in the 1950s after the diocese received complaints, then became director of a Roman Catholic residential facility for troubled boys called Boystown of the Desert in Banning, Calif.

I'm trying to imagine the Church's decision making process here. "Hmmm, we have a residential facility for troubled boys, who should we put in charge? Oh, I know! The known pedophile. Nothing can go wrong there!"

The papers also contain documents from the files of Rev. Anthony Rodrigue. In 1976, a group of parents at Rodrigue's parish in Heber, Calif., complained he had molested their children, according to court documents.

The priest was sent to a psychiatric facility in Massachusetts for treatment but was put back in ministry despite the recommendations of those who treated him.

Really, the only conclusion one can draw at this point, from the Church's actions, is that the Catholic Church is an organization devoted to giving pedophiles endless access to children to molest and then protect them from any consequences.

And the faithful pay for it. Lovely. They should just be honest with themselves and start giving cash to pedophiles directly. Cut out the middleman.

It's All Ball Bearings These Days

Now hold still while I explain god to you . . .

pic link

The Bible Proves God Is Not Omniscient

The first game of hide 'n' seek didn't go so well.

Do you ask where people you can see are? Look at the person next to you. You can see them, right? You know exactly where they are. Do you feel any need to ask them where they are?

Why does God do it then? More than once, God, who is supposedly all knowing, asks a question he ought to know the answer to.

For example, in Job 1:7, he asks Satan,

And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?”

and Satan replies,

So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

That's a weird little exchange when you think about it. If God is omnipotent, he doesn't need to ask where Satan came from. I can't imagine why God would feel compelled to make small talk, especially with Satan.

Satan's reply is odd, too, assuming God was omnipotent and Satan knew God was omnipotent. (It's the sort of basic information you could expect Satan to be in possession of.) Think about my example. If the person sitting next to you asks you where you are, do you say," Right here where you can see me," or do you say, "What the hell are you asking me that for?" Satan just answers the question, exactly the way I would if my husband called my cell phone and asked me where I was.

Consider Adam and Eve, and the fact that God lost track of them in the Garden of Eden. That's right, omnipotent God couldn't find the only two humans on the planet. Humans lacking any technology or skills that would allow them to travel any farther or faster than, well, a human on foot can travel.

Genesis 3:8-9

⁸ And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

⁹ Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

That's right, if God is looking for you, just hide behind a tree, and don't answer when he calls for you. Hey, if Adam had taken my advice, we wouldn't even be here. He and Eve could still be hiding behind trees while God attempts to trick them into playing Marco Polo.

Picture: The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise by Alexandre Cabanel

The Erotic Apocalypse

This is the apocalypse. Less explosions than I would have thought, actually.

The fact that women are half of all workers (we're half the population, it's about damn time) fills some people with hope, others with despair and still others with . . . really kinky fantasies, apparently.

From the Thinking Housewife, I give you the Erotic Apocalypse*.

THIS AD appears in the latest issue of Fortune. The slogan is “Women as half of all workers changes everything.” That’s true. It does change everything, including the hearts and minds of women. The women in the foreground of this ad appear aroused. They appear to be on the verge of an erotic apocalypse, as if they will gaze from the pinnacles of power with moans of ecstasy. Notice how the morning sun rises in the background. They carry severed heads in their handbags.

Um, okay, let me wipe the sticky from the monitor . . . There we go. I guess lots of things are in the eyes of the beholder, because I'm not seeing arousal, excuse me, arousal, or severed heads. Really, who puts a severed head in their handbag? You're never getting that clean. I prefer to use a reuseable grocery bag, personally.

*Much sexier than the Zombie Apocalypse.

Atheist Battle Strategies Against Christians

Made ya look!

(if you haven't read this post at Pharyngula, it might make more sense that way.)

It appears that the Christians have found us out, fellow atheists. They have discovered the Atheist Battle Strategies Against Christians. First they found The Atheist Agenda and now the Atheist Battle Strategies Against Christians. I don't know who keeps carelessly leaving SuperSekret Atheist Materials(tm) out where Christians can find them, but when I find that person, you will be forced to listen to Christian Rock until you beg for mercy. And then we'll make you watch Fireproof.

Anyway, since the mailing list is a little out of date, and the Christians have the Strategies anyway, I thought I'd go ahead and share them with you.

1. Boobies. We all know the merest glimpse of the female form is sinful, so full on cleavage is our best weapon. (Does not cause earthquakes.)

2. Logic. It's truly unfair how we insist upon logical responses to questions. No True Scotsman? A stroke of genius! Circular Reasoning is the atheist's cruise missile.

3. Science. This one took some doing, but setting up a system that requires reproducible, verifiable, falsifiable results is a winning strategy if I ever saw one.

4. The Internet. All that information, just a click away. Genius, guys, genius.

5. Liberal Christians. We really can't take credit for these. Contrary to rumor, the Slacktivist is not an atheist operative. He's just a really nice guy on a mission to make the world a better place.

So, feel free to guerrilla up that bitch with some logic and science on the internet, comrades.

Oh, Yes, Christianity Isn't Misogynist At All

Hey, it's Biblical.

I lurve it when Christians deny what's in their own book. Genocide? Don't be silly! Incest? Well, that's not promoted or anything. Misogyny? Hah! Christianity did more for women than any other movement, including the feminist movement.

Oh, really?

I was unaware that "shut up when the men are talking" is a feminist message.

1 Corinthians 14:34,35

Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.

Well, that's a feminist message if I've ever heard one! No, wait . . .

Okay, that's one passage in a really big book, let's see:

Ephesians 5:22,23

Wives, submit to your own husbands , as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.

Huh. Submission to men. Not exactly doing anything for women. Okay, then:

1 Timothy 2:11-14

Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.

Women are to blame for everything! And can't have authority. Or teach.

Look, if you're actually reading the Bible, it's deeply misogynist. Women, when they are even mentioned, and more rarely, named, are either entirely to blame for a man's problems, or praiseworthy for being silent and taking whatever they are given. Feminism, it's not.

pic link